Press Review

“Aravot” reacts to Saturday’s shooting incident in Yerevan that left five people wounded. The gunman who injured them turned out to be a son-in-law of Karo Karapetian, a parliament deputy from the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK). The paper says men like him are not typical gangsters or Mafiosi. “They are simply good fellows who care a lot about their honor,” it says with sarcasm. “For the sake of their pathological principles they are ready to not just kill people but also annihilate the entire humankind. The son of the former Gyumri Mayor Vartan Ghukasian, Spartak, or the former Syunik governor [Suren Khachatrian] and his family are other individuals of this kind.” The paper recalls that Karapetian himself reportedly fired gunshots in a 2010 dispute with another man. Just like that incident, it says, the latest shootout will be covered up by law-enforcement bodies.

“This is an absolute manifestation of lawlessness,” “Haykakan Zhamanak” writes in reference to the shooting that occurred in downtown Yerevan in broad daylight. Three of the wounded individuals played no part in the incident and were simply hit by stray bullets. The paper says that while Karapetian is “de jure” not responsible for what happened he has been linked with similar violent incidents reported in the past. “His hot-blooded son-in-law was apparently inspired by his impunity,” it says.

“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” derides the new Armenian government’s policy program that was formally approved on Monday. “Everybody knows that the shadow sector in Armenia accounts for at least 35-40 percent [of economic activity,]” writes the paper. “Just a few days ago Hovik Abrahamian gathered businesspeople and issued them with a July 1 deadline for coming out of the shadow … Even if half of the shadow sector is brought into the taxation field the economy will grow by at least 20 percent.” And yet Abrahamian’s government has forecast that economic growth this year will not exceed 5 percent. “This can mean only one thing: big business will continue to be under the blanket,” the paper claims.

Gagik Minasian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on finance and budget affairs, tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that the new government has set more realistic macroeconomic targets that the previous one. Minasian says that unlike Tigran Sarkisian’s cabinet, the government wants to “promise little but do more.”